happiness bites
So I have a hard time writing something genuinely *happy*. Not like that's a big secret... There's some measure of angst in almost all my stories, even when there's happiness, and that actually makes it more tangible to me. It's that murky tracing of risk and loss around happiness and fulfillment, the bedrock of realism that sharpens its edges.
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Re: your discussion of bliss: are you familiar with Tolkien's concept of "eucatastrophe", a term he coined? He defined it as that "peculiar quality of the 'joy' in successful fantasy (which) can be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth." (see Lang lecture on Fairy Tales). Most of the theorists I've read linked his conception of eucatastrophe tightly to Tolkien's strong Catholic faith. You can read a little more about it here or here.
I remember talking once with Kim Stanley Robinson about how much more difficult it is to write a true utopia than a dystopia for the reasons you cite (I was interviewing him about his novel The Wild Shore. That being said, I'm looking forward eagerly to what you do with Frodo and Sam's reunion.
I think The Lord of the Rings is even more memorable because Tolkien chose to use the bittersweet ending. But as much as I ( ... )
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No, I'm not, but it sounds very close to what I was thinking of. Thanks for pointing this out to me!
I think The Lord of the Rings is even more memorable because Tolkien chose to use the bittersweet ending. But as much as I love and admire the ending Tolkien chose, I do long for the truly blissful ending.
I'm rather convinced that this is exactly the effect he was aiming for (and he was certainly successful with me, if that's the case!. I have to admit though that I find the ending bitter more than sweet, but it definitely sparks the impulse to envision some kind of continuation or closure.
Like Tolkien, for me the longing for the blissful ending springs from the same impulse as my longing for heaven--whether you understand it as the Christian conception of heaven, or ( ... )
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For Tolkien it certainly was. Here's the essay where I first read about Tolkien's conception of eucatastrophe; have I pointed you to it before? It's given me quite a bit of food for thought, even after multiple readings (click here). Search for the term "eucatastrophe" and read that bit, even if you don't read the entire essay. I found this bit particularly interesting:
Tolkien . . . hid some . . . anagogic dates in his book. In Appendix B, he specifies that the Quest leaves Rivendell on 25 December. The day on which the Ring is destroyed, 25 March, was according to English tradition the day of the Fall, and the Annunciation, and the Crucifixion as well. 'The Lord of the Rings is fundamentally a religious and Catholic work,' Tolkien wrote to Robert Murray. 'The religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.' ( ... )
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I hope you'll share your thoughts at a later point...
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That's very much how I like to imagine it too. :) I don't think it gets boring when it's lived, though that probably implies a certain dynamic... And here I might contradict myself, but I guess the transitory quality comes in only through writing it. A constant state like that doesn't really translate into stories.
Much good storytelling is adventure/morality tales of overcoming obstacles... even dear old George Lucas talked at some point about the first act (ep 4) being to introduce the characters, have the good guys triumph over the bad guys, and have a happy ending.Now that you mention Star Wars... George probably intended a happy ending with RoJ, but boy, that never worked for me. I find his version of ( ... )
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One is Letters Over the Sea, which I've mentioned to you before. That story treatment stopped just short of the reunion, however. The other I particularly liked was Pretty Good Year, which handled the ambiguity of Tolkien's ending in an imaginative way: the co-authors explored both endings, one where Frodo stayed in Middle Earth with Sam and Rosie and one where he left, but refused to choose between them.
Have you read any fanfic rewrites of the ending of LOTR that particularly pleased you?
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*Frodo* refused to choose...? Hmm. ;-) No, I haven't read this particular story, I'm afraid, but I've heard many good things about it. The trouble is just... I can't get into Frodo/Rosie at all. I'll admit I'm not much for threesomes generally, and here I see no foundation for it in the books. There's no connection between them, other than the fact that Sam marries her. But this is all just my personal preference and interpretation of LOTR, and really, I'm very much an OTP girl. (Guess that's obvious enough... ;-)
Besides the wonderful "Letters", I don't think I've read any alternate endings (unless they came about in the course of an extremely alternate storyline), though I'm certainly curious. So, if you have any other recommendations...
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The other I particularly liked was Pretty Good Year, which handled the ambiguity of Tolkien's ending in an imaginative way: the co-authors explored both endings, one where Frodo stayed in Middle Earth with Sam and Rosie and one where he left, but refused to choose between them.
*Frodo* refused to choose...? Hmm. ;-)
Perhaps you're joking, but . . . no, I meant the authors refused to choose between the two endings. Which, I thought, was a pretty good trick, because the two endings were equally persuasive, and equally as beautifully written ( ... )
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I really do urge you to give "A Pretty Good Year" a chance. You mention that you can't get into Frodo/Rosie at all. I never would have believed it could have worked either, as well as it did here. I didn't really have much interest or liking for Rose as a character until I read this story (admit it: so many readers just hate her deep down inside because she comes between "our" Frodo and Sam).That may be so, but it's not how I feel about her. I don't think she came between Frodo and Sam in any sense, and most of the time, I feel rather sorry for her (though, who knows, perhaps the marriage fulfilled her expectations). Still, adding a romantic relationship between her and Frodo is just as arbitrary to me as a Frodo/random hobbitlass would be, and simply not very likely, considering both the background of hobbit culture, their investment in genealogy, and Frodo's apparent disinterest in females, unless they fit the ( ... )
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This is the most accurate description of the concept that I have ever heard. That settles it; I'll have to read Barthes. Also, those Reasons you listed at the end are, for the most part, the ones that I couldn't give breath for the purpose of describing why I was so nervous about exposing Any Other Day. Colleagues called me irrational, but I don't find it so irrational anymore--not when you state it in such succinct terms.
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Also, those Reasons you listed at the end are, for the most part, the ones that I couldn't give breath for the purpose of describing why I was so nervous about exposing Any Other Day.
I should be grateful if you're less nervous now, not that there was ever a cause for it. This story is a treasure beyond any other. Ah, *bliss*... how easy to recognize, and how hard to come by.
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Or maybe I shouldn't ask. But, oh, whatever you write, I shall gobble up hungrily. You know that. :)
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